Trump cabinet member visits Twin Falls food hall, celebrates $90 billion in opportunity zone investments

Idaho’s Twin Falls This week, Sen. Mike Crapo and Housing and Urban Development Secretary Scott Turner visited a Twin Falls food hall to commemorate a successful opportunity zone investment, bringing some high-profile guests.

Idaho’s first opportunity zone project was the 2nd South Food Hall, which debuted in 2020. As a component of the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act, the scheme enables investors to avoid paying taxes by rerouting capital gains into development projects.

VIEW HERE: Not every day does a member of the cabinet visit Twin Falls.

“There’s been almost $90 billion in private money 90 billion with a B that’s been invested in rural, and urban, and tribal opportunities to create new operating businesses to create new housing, new jobs, families,” Turner stated.

The opportunity zone designation enabled owners Dave and Lisa Buddecke to realize their objective.

According to Dave Buddecke, “We took a big risk to see if this was going to work,”

They were drawn to the structure, but at first it seemed impossible to finance it, Lisa Buddecke explained.

“We saw the building, we knew it was here, but we didn’t think we could make the investment because we had to pay the capital gains taxes on the property that we had sold,” she explained.

Now, the opportunity zone initiative is part of what officials refer to as the “One Big Beautiful Bill.”

Crapo praised the initiative during his visit.

“These are the kinds of things that we need the federal government to lead out in and helping communities like this expand like this opportunity we saw here today,” Crapo stated.

Turner, the current Secretary of HUD and former head of the Opportunity Zone program, stated that his agency is concentrating on housing shortages.

“We require almost 7 million housing units. We are making every effort to intentionally make our housing more affordable. We are eliminating onerous regulations. Burdensome regulations cripple development,” Turner said.

The Self-Help Housing Program in Filer was the next destination on Turner’s Magic Valley tour after the food hall visit.

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